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The Green Man is Hungry

The garden Gods have a good sense of humor. I noticed this early this morning. The Green Man appears to be about to eat my Nightshade. Click for a better look.

My graveyard is filling in nicely.

The Oakleaf Hydrangeas continue to darken.

Soon, these Magnolia pods will darken and drop to the ground scattering their seeds.

This is the Nightshade's flower.

Nightshade aka Bella Donna is poisonous. But perhaps not for The Green Man.

And it's berries are eaten by the birds.

I could not get a good photo of my Water Lilies but they are all blooming right now.

And talk about plants replanting themselves throughout our gardens, look where my oregano now calls home.

It used to grow in this urn but decided it likes the cracks in my steps better.

And check out this Clematis. It has dark purple flowers, lavender and white all on the same plant.

The Autumn Clematis has put out it's buds and is ready to put on quite a display.

This spider spun it's web from the patio all the way up to tree limbs. That makes this web over ten feet tall. The spider is smaller than a dime.

And he is camera shy. He hightailed it up the web when I was taking his picture. Once again, we have tons of spider webs everywhere. This is the third summer this has happened and we have had two really strong winters. I wonder if this predicts another strong winter this year. I sure hope so and it could start tomorrow as far as I am concerned.

I harvested my garlic this morning.

I braided all of it and hung it in the basement. I love my homegrown garlic. It has a much stronger flavor than store bought.

Spider webs larger than usual are a predictor of a harsh Winter. We too have had plentiful webs ones all over the garden and patio. They seem to think that the ornate metalwork was put there just for them to use as framework for their lace. And every morning, I have to pick silken threads off of my face as I make my way to the garage. .the Balloon spiders apparently hold races down the length between the house and garage. While the orb webs are spectacular to look at, my favorites are the teeny Bowl & Doily Spiders, who spin intricate webs shaped like teacups and saucers on grassy surfaces. .the morning dew coats them, and they sparkle like they are made of diamonds when the sun hits them. SO magical!

I would love to grow my own garlic, but don't have enough sunny area to do so.

My Clematis does the same thing. Multiple colors of flowers from the same plant.

Nightshade came up on its own two years ago, and now, despite me trying to control it, goes pretty much wherever it wants. I even put down barriers of multiple layers of newspaper with inches of mulch, and it still came through! And yes, the birds love it. .I guess every Witchy garden needs some nightshade. And a Greenman! Yours is awesome!

It won't be long, and you won't be able to see where your graveyard was! Good thing you took photos!

The garden looks so wonderful! I've enjoyed my own garlic as well, but I didn't get any planted for this year. I have nightshade growing wild, and it is beautiful, but I need to get rid of it, so the goats won't eat it. I do like the way your Green Man seems to think it is tasty.

This is a fabulous salad and will be great to serve during hot weather.

I found cucumbers on sale 3 for 1.00 so I made this for the shelter. I will give you the recipe in which you use 4 cucumbers.

Bring 2 cups of white vinegar and 1-1/2 cups of sugar to a boil along with 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of celery seeds and 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Boil it until the sugar dissolves then turn off the heat.

Throw in 2 cups of ice cubes and let them melt.

Thinly slice 4 cucumbers, 1 large red onion and 1 large green pepper.

Pack them tightly in a jar.

Pour the liquid over them and close the jar. These will keep for a couple months in the fridge. I tucked in some garlic cloves and fresh dill as well.

I have received a lot of emails recently asking me about how I make my garden totems. I thought that it is the right time of year to show you and I actually have been making some recently.

I went to thrift stores looking for pieces for the totems and happened to find this cool cement piece for $1.95. Not used for a totem but fun anyway.

I always look for this type of plate to use as a base. These plates actually have small feet on them so you can anchor them into the soil. The decorations on this plate are on the underside and the top surface is flat. It is important to have a flat surface to get a solid seal with the glue. I have used all types of glue but find that aquarium glue works best. I never pay over $2.95 for these plates.

This is a heavy vase from Ikea that I found in a thrift store for 99 cents. These large clear pieces are good to use as stems on the totems especially if you want to add a bird or flowers or something as decorations.